Shut out the noise, raise player awareness: Upton’s mantra
India’s mental conditioning coach during their victorious 2011 World Cup campaign talks about the pressure of playing the upcoming tournament at home
Playing cricket for India brings the highest level of pressure. The noise on the ground can be deafening, unlike anywhere else in the world. And if it is a Word Cup at home, everything multiplies.
Paddy Upton knows it all. As a mental conditioning expert, his biggest achievement was to help India’s 2011 batch beat the odds and live up to the expectations of a billion plus people by winning the World Cup at home.
Dealing with the pressure is the key to playing a big-ticket event at home. Even if the players want to keep it normal, fans, friends, family and media will keep reminding them about the importance of performing well.
India will have to deal with it in October-November in the ICC World Cup. As a member of the 2011 squad, Virat Kohli knows all about it. For the rest, it will be some test of nerves and to stay focused on the job at hand, the importance of a mental strength expert can’t be overlooked.
A big factor in India’s successful 2011 campaign was Upton’s role as mental conditioning and strategic leadership coach. He was with India from 2008-2011 as part of coach Gary Kirsten’s think tank. For the World Cup, his job was to prepare the players for the kind of pressure none of them would have faced.
As India gear up for the upcoming World Cup, Upton emphasises on mental conditioning. “Every team arrives with skilled players and good strategy, good data on the opposition and good understanding of the Indian conditions. So, very often the mental side of the game plays a very important role at the end of the day,” Upton, now a consultant with the Indian men’s hockey team, said.
Having returned to work briefly with the cricket team last year before the Asia Cup and T20 World Cup, Upton has a fair understanding of the demands on the current India players.
“The big pressure is all the noise from the outside because the home team has all friends and families close by. All the people around them have got very high expectations, to do well and deliver the World Cup.
“In India particularly the expectations are probably greater than any other country has on their players. So, it becomes so important to be able to quieten (the noise), not let that pressure to affect their mental state, which is very difficult,” said Upton, who also worked with India head coach Rahul Dravid for five seasons at Rajasthan Royals.
With increased demands on elite sportspersons, most teams hire mental strength coaches. Pakistan too have a sports psychologist in Dr Maqbool Babri.
Awareness and preparation, and constant work on both, is the process followed. “It’s about coming up with strategies on how we handle the additional noises and pressures that will come with playing at a home World Cup.”
Upton said: “First of all it is raising the awareness of the players, so that when it happens, it doesn’t take them by surprise.”
It starts with identifying players who are the most vulnerable. Are there signs to identify who needs help? “The players who listen to the outside noise are those who need the most help. Those who read and listen to comments on social media are those who need help to separate themselves from outside noise, focus on their game and what the team needs them to do.
“Then you get others who are naturally more secure as persons, that they don’t need to read social media comments or listen to people; and even if people put pressure on them, say nice or bad things, the player doesn’t really listen to them too much. They just keep focusing on their game, the game their team needs them to play.”
So, what’s the kind of work the current team needs to do? Upton said the team management has been smart in resting players when required. “The important thing is to arrive at the World Cup with the main squad fresh. It is about balancing, to have them fresh and in enough form. They are skilled enough players, have good enough strategy; the team is good enough to win it. Again, the real strength is you have got someone like Dravid who clearly understands preparing players for a big moment like this.
“Not over-training them, or over-playing them, a mistake some teams make. Also not giving them too little, so that they are mentally and emotionally fresh. I don’t think there is anybody in the world who understands that better than Dravid, and alongside him Rohit Sharma, so that’s a real asset.”
As for how the 2011 bunch handled the biggest stage, the final against Sri Lanka at Wankhede Stadium, Upton said: “One of the things we did was in one year in the lead up to the World Cup, at every meeting, game and practice we spoke about “when we play the final in Mumbai”. So, by the time we got there, in the players’ mind they had been there so many times already, so there was nothing new or different that was required to do.”
